The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1887-09-07
II...l-1nIEns Treasorl.
I -
The episode which took place

The episode which took place at
the Wheeling reunion Friday,
when members of the Grand Army
of the Republic refused to march
under the banner bearing Cleye-
lands picture, was the most disgust
ing and most deploraple affair that
ever occurred in the State for in
this country since therebelliong Il
Men who claimed shat they had
fought to preserve the Union trailed
the United States, flag in the dust
at the sight of the picture of their
president Twenty years ago the
men who would have. insulted the
government in such manner would
been shot dead in their tracks
Men were shot for less ioffense; men
were disfranchisedss ssfHoi; not being in
sympathy with the Government,
Do they still hold malice for such
treatment Are they still unloyal2
No. They are to day more
loyal than the alleged preserv-
ers of the Union. This is proven by
the episode at Wheeling.
There will be three results from
this affair. One will be thestrength-
ening of the ties which bind loyal
men to the governments; one will be
the suspicion in which the Grand
Army of the republic must be for
ever held, on account of the way it
is manipulated by scheming and
unscrupulous politicians, and the
other will be the making of new
and the clinching of old Democrats.
After the insult, deliberate and ma
licious, offered to the president of'the
United States because he is Dem
ocrat, no man who is a Democrat
and loyal citizen of this Govern
ment will bear it quietly. But at
the polls, the men who thus deeply
and treasonably insulted the Gov
ernment, must be rebuBed. And
every man who has the security OF
the government at heart, who be-
lieves in the perpetuation of the
Union, will avenge the national in
suit at the polls, as did the men OF
1904 on the field of carnage. The
dastardly insult offered President
Cleveland by the members of the
Grand Army of the Republic was
aninsult to the government. Cleve-
land was elected by a majority Of
the votes of free people as the
chief magistrate ofthe United States
and to insult him is to inult this
Government of, for and by the peo-
pie. To say that he is not the le-
gally constituted head of this gov
ernment, is to annul the fundamen-
tai principle of the government; to
make it not a republic; to say that
unless a Republican is the chief
magistrate there is no legal govern
ment; that it is only a fraudulent
affray, awaiting the advent of a
Republican president in order to be
a sound governmental all. Such is
the only reasoning to be deduced
from the action of the Gaand Army
of the Republic at Wheeling, and
yet any sensible man knows that
such reason is dangerous to our
liberties and to our free institutions.
When the Wheeling episode is
known all over this country every
true and loyal citizen will think,
and with good reason that the Re
publican party, as now manipulat-
ed by it's leading politicians, is more
dangerous to the peace and prosper
ity of the government, than were
the promulgators of States rights.
Let every Democrat in this State
remain the same loyal Unionist,
and see that the next election day
finds him at the polls with a Demo
cratic ballot in his hand, and de-
sire in his heart to avenge the in
suit to his honor and his loyalty, by
defeating the Republican party.